Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The Hershey Bears are on pace for the best record in AHL history. The Milwaukee Admirals just had a 19-game winning streak, the second-longest ever in the AHL.
And then there are the Providence Bruins, who keep quietly banking wins and points. They don’t have a Calder Cup championship to defend. They haven’t chased records. But they are putting together yet another impressive season.
“Putting together” is the operative term for this team, work that started last summer with a significant overhaul.
While the Bears have a 13-point lead for first place in the AHL, the Bruins (34-16-3-2) are right there among some of the league’s best clubs this season. They start this week at 73 points, tied for second place overall with Milwaukee and Coachella Valley, last season’s Calder Cup finalist.
Stumbles have been rare: this is a team that already has separate winning streaks of seven, six, six and five games. They have not lost back-to-back games in nearly three months, going 20-4-1-0 since the Christmas break. They are well positioned to make a 10th consecutive trip to the Calder Cup Playoffs. Providence partnered with the nearby Boston Bruins in 1992, making it the AHL’s longest-running affiliation, and success is just expected in Rhode Island’s capital.
With 98 points last season, the P-Bruins edged out Hershey for the Atlantic Division title and finished behind only Calgary and Coachella Valley in the overall standings. But a quick exit against Hartford in the division semifinals left Providence without a postseason series win since 2017, and was followed by the typical churn of the offseason, particularly for a club that has always had a strong veteran base. Up front, Joona Koppanen (Pittsburgh), Vinni Lettieri (Minnesota) and Chris Wagner (Colorado) all found new homes. Jakub Lauko earned a full-time promotion to Boston, and Oskar Steen and John Beecher have spent much of this season in Boston as well. On the back end, Jack Ahcan (Colorado), Connor Carrick (Seattle) and captain Josiah Didier (Grand Rapids) all ranked among the departures.
And yet the Bruins keep going. Boston added proven AHL scoring in Anthony Richard, who came over after a 30-goal season with Laval. Jesper Boqvist (New Jersey) and Jayson Megna (Anaheim) came to Providence after spending much of last season in the NHL. Young defensemen Alec Regula and Reilly Walsh arrived via separate trades. Blueliner Parker Wotherspoon was signed and helped in Providence, at least until he earned a sustained recall to Boston. Harvard’s John Farinacci and Boston College’s Trevor Kuntar came on board, and Calder Cup champion Patrick Brown has been a leader in Providence as well as a reliable callup for Boston. As always, it’s a good blend of young prospects mixed in with that strong and experienced foundation.
Left to make all of those new faces mesh together is head coach Ryan Mougenel, who is in his third season leading the P-Bruins after spending two seasons on Jay Leach’s staff as an assistant. The new mix of faces started off at 6-8-1-2, however.
“I think it took some time for them to get acclimated to how we play,” Mougenel said. “You lose a little bit of our leadership last year. Even for me as staff, we talked a lot about what we didn’t have compared to last year where we should have probably been appreciating what was in our lineup. I think once we figured that out, the guys have really played winning hockey.
“You lost the people. Sometimes in this business, you have friendships, guys you lean on, and you feel really comfortable with. And that’s always hard. It’s something with coaching that’s always a really difficult thing for me. There was a little bit of residue left with that.”
A do-everything forward like Wagner is not easily replaced. A proven captain like Didier leaving created a void in the Providence dressing room. A smart, thoughtful mind like Carrick was gone. And so on.
“We lost Chris Wagner, who’s an amazing leader, amazing guy for me and the coaching staff to lean on,” Mougenel said. “And Didier, I don’t know if there’s a better captain at the American League level. But it’s part of what the American League is.”
It meant that the Boston front office had a lot of work to do last summer to rebuild that foundation that helps to bring along young talent like Georgii Merkulov, Fabian Lysell and others. Boston assistant general manager Evan Gold worked with assistant GM-player personnel Jamie Langenbrunner and director of pro scouting Dennis Bonvie to construct a new Providence roster.
“They did an amazing job identifying just high-quality guys,” Mougenel pointed out. “It’s hard to find those guys, and when you have it, you want to hang on to them. And sometimes opportunity and economics play a role in losing them.
“You just hope as a coach and staff you’re bringing guys that are an extension of you and what you believe in. They hit the nail on the head.”
TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM! Sports, and was most recently the co-host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
